Acid spill

A chemical spill kept Owairaka res­i­dents in­doors on Tues­day morn­ing. At about 5.30am work­ers on the bil­lion dol­lar Water­view tun­nel project dis­cov­ered a 1000 litre container of hy­drochlo­ric acid in­side an in­dus­trial build­ing on Hen­don Ave had been punc­tured, leak­ing its con­tents and cre­at­ing an acidic cloud. Hy­drochlo­ric acid is colour­less but is cor­ro­sive and can burn. Fumes from the spill drifted to­wards Methuen Rd, Batkin Rd, Bol­lard Ave and New Wind­sor Rd. Res­i­dents were ad­vised to stay in­doors and some were evac­u­ated. Po­lice and mul­ti­ple fire crews at­tended. Caus­tic soda was ap­plied to the acid at around 11am to neu­tralise it.